Most Christians think the confession of the divinity of Jesus is a basic Christian axiom, as at home in the New Testament as it is in the creeds and the Church Fathers. To deny the divinity of Christ is to become a heretic: to cease being Christian. I come from the Stone-Campbell tradition. Very few adherents to my tradition realize that Barton Stone denied the divinity of Christ most of his Christian life, until in his old age (evinced in an unpublished letter) he became convinced that the notion of the divinity of Christ was a necessary Christian doctrine. Most Christians just assume that those who deny the divinity of Jesus are the heretics—like the Jehovah’s Witnesses (who believe that Jesus was a “god,” Little G, as in an angel, specifically Michael), or the Muslims (who deny that Jesus was God’s son because they affirm he was born of a virgin, and they think the idea of God’s son implies that God impregnated Mary). People who deny the divinity of Jesus are wackos who don’t understand the clear teaching of the Scriptures.

Well, in point of fact, I’m going to show that most Christians have it backwards. The “orthodox” doctrine of the divinity of Jesus is the real heresy. The New Testament does not teach that Jesus is God. Jesus never claimed to be God, and no New Testament writer ever claimed he was God.

Now, a lot of you are already pissed off at me. A dozen verses just passed through your head like bullets through my head. “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God! How do you refute that, asshole?” Well, I’ll get to that. This is the beginning of a series on the question of Jesus’ status as divine in the New Testament, in which I’ll deal with Paul’s letters, the Synoptic Gospels, the Gospel of John, Acts, the letter to the Hebrews, and the book of Revelation (plus anything else my readers think evinces New Testament teaching about the divinity of Jesus).

Now, I may be wrong, which is fine, but I think I can show that the New Testament does not portray Jesus as sharing the unique identity of Yahweh, being fully God, and all that orthodox screed. Some New Testament writers sometimes come fairly close, and some of the texts can be seen as ambiguous, but I intend to show that orthodox Christianity is reading the New Testament anachronistically through the lenses of later church councils, rather than through the eyes of first century apocalyptic Judaism which was, for all intents and purposes, monotheistic.

I’m going to ask my readers to suspend their disbelief for the time being. Let’s try to start with as clean a slate as possible. Imagine you’re a first century Jew who has never heard of “the Trinity” or of the idea of a God-Man (apart from in the “pagan” mythologies). How would you, as such a first century Jew, understand the claims of the New Testament about Jesus? That’s what we’re going to try to find out, but it will take some hard imaginative work on the part of those who are firmly committed to the idea that Jesus was and is God.

For the sake of saving everybody from unnecessary pain, I’ll also ask commenters to realize that although I am not the singular expert on the subject, this question is the subject of one of my Masters theses, and so I have done a great deal of research, and I’ve read most of the best books on all sides of the debate. So if you think I take this position because I haven’t thought of this, or haven’t read that, you’re probably wrong. In reality, I take the position I take because I’m an arrogant son-of-a-bitch who is out to prove himself, God and truth be damned in the process. No, that’s a joke. In reality reality, I take the position I take because I think it makes the most sense of the historical data. So, I add this caveat not to discourage commenters from engaging me or challenging me, but just to discourage commenters from assuming I must be glossing over the evidence for their position out of ignorance or willful rebellion against God. Let’s try to keep this conversation as charitable as possible.

That said, I’ll now ask you to list as many texts as you can which you believe indicate or possibly indicate evidence for New Testament teaching about Jesus’ divinity. Don’t leave any stones unturned. Don’t not mention a text just because you think it’s obvious. I want to try to make an argument that answers as many questions as possible. Ultimately, I don’t really care if I convince you that Jesus isn’t God and isn’t portrayed that way in the New Testament. I hope that I am able to convince you that people who deny the divinity of Jesus aren’t necessarily heretics, even if I fail to convince you that you’re a heretic. I don’t really care who’s a heretic and who’s not. I think that whole way of talking is just power-mongering. What I am interested in is reality, and I recognize that part of what constitutes reality is that human beings are constantly looking for ways to escape it. So I’m not a “believer” hater. I do, however, dislike people who use abstract theological constructs as a litmus test to determine who’s in and who’s out.

That said, let the discussion begin. Post your favorite proof-texts or proof-narratives for the divinity of Jesus. Then I’ll organize my responses and begin my argument. Below I will list the texts suggested to me in the comments, and update my list regularly so everybody can see clearly what texts have been suggested without having to read through all the comments:

  • Matt 14:33; 28:9, 17, 19
  • Mark 1:1, 11; 2:10, 28; 6:50; 8:38; 9:2-13; 13:26; 14:21, 62; 15:39
  • John 1:1-3, 14; 5:17-27; 6:20; 8:28, 58; 10:30-35; 13:19; 20:28
  • Acts 3:15
  • Rom 9:5
  • 1 Cor 8:4-6
  • Phil 2:5-11
  • Col 1:15-20; 2:9
  • Titus 2:13
  • Heb 1:1-14
  • 2 Pet 1:1
  • Rev 5:8-12; 22:12-13